'Good things will happen …'

There was a line in Rahm Emanuel's inaugural speech: "Let's never forget the dream. The dream that has made generation after generation of Chicagoans come here and stay here."

Standing on the vast lawn of the Pritzker Pavilion, a young mother listened closely.

Elena Moral, a native of Spain, has fallen in love with this place. The culture, the lakefront, the diversity, even the charms of 40-degree May afternoons. The Lakeview resident already can tell you why the parking meter deal stinks.

Which is why it saddens her to think of leaving Chicago. But her family very well could leave — for the sake of 11-month-old Ruben, the first Chicago-born member of the family. The majesty of Millennium Park can't paper over a school system that doesn't work.

"Who would want to flee a place like this?" Moral said. "We will stay if he has opportunities. I have trust in Rahm that things can be better for him, that good things will happen."

Inaugurations can be a time for blind optimism. But even the religious leaders who spoke used their oratory to ground us in reality, not just lift us up. Homelessness, racism, unemployment, budget deficits. The social ills they described seem to go on and on.

It is fitting that the inauguration took place at Millennium Park, the symbol of Mayor Richard Daley's ambitions. Could we even afford a Millennium Park today?

On the stage behind Emanuel was the collection of elected officials and civic leaders who will help make this experiment work — or not. They have their own tribes, their own rivalries. Almost all have publicly commended the new mayor's message, but some will quietly, stubbornly, block at least some of his efforts. Outside the park, dozens of picketers launched a pre-emptive salvo against Emanuel's very aggressive education agenda.

What Emanuel did Monday was begin a compact, not just with the pols but with his fellow citizens, gathered under a blue sky without a cloud in sight. He understands that we share a legacy. We have built a city whose greatness has been forged from trials —fires, blizzards, riots, epidemics, profound economic shifts such as the shuttering of the stockyards. Today Chicago faces a great trial, a challenge to reinvent a government that can serve the city and that the city can afford.

Several people in the crowd proudly exclaimed that they were there in 2008, just a few blocks south in Grant Park, for Barack Obama's election-night speech. Comparisons are tempting. On the lawn, this inauguration was different. Yes, there was a sense of pride in a new leader's promise and accomplishment. But there was more a sense of sober, collective acknowledgement that the city needs to get to work. Reinvention won't be easy.

On that day in 2008 we sent Obama off to run the country. Emanuel's journey from Millennium Park was just a few blocks west to City Hall. But Chicagoans like Elena Moral do feel a personal stake in Emanuel's success. They want to live here, to work here, to grow here, to see their children succeed in Chicago schools. To build their city with a common purpose.